Portable x-ray detectors are a fast growing market in the medical and industrial markets. Digital x-ray (DXR) detectors are typically fabricated on thick glass substrates. As a result, current portable products have a limited ruggedness specification, including a maximum 30 cm drop height. The glass substrate requires significant package thickness and weight to protect the fragile glass substrate from breaking. Trade-offs may be required to balance detector ruggedness against detector weight and thickness.
Therefore, the critical limitation for a highly portable, front-line deployed digital x-ray detector is the glass substrate. Display technologies such as e-readers and e-books offer the opportunity for a light-weight and rugged substrate. Many of the requirements for an active matrix display overlap with those for a digital x-ray detector. As a result, a flexible display has the potential to be integrated into a rugged digital x-ray detector. A flexible, unbreakable, thin substrate would enable thin, rugged, light-weight x-ray detectors and new processing capability that was not previously possible.